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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from salted cod, potatoes, egg, butter, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the fish in cold water and break it into small pieces.

  2. Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into pieces.

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the fish and potatoes together in boiling water until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Drain and shake over the fire until dry.

  3. Mash the mixture with a fork, then add the beaten egg, butter, and pepper.

  4. Add more salt if needed and beat until light.

Fry

  1. Take spoonfuls of the mixture, mold slightly, and slip them into deep, hot fat.

  2. Fry for one minute, or until brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Potato + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salted cod
Provides the main flavor and the flaky body of the fish balls.
Potatoes
Add starch and softness that bind the mixture and keep it tender.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture together so the balls hold their shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Drain and shake over the fire until dry. Excess water in the cooked fish and potatoes makes the mixture loose and soggy, so the balls may fall apart or steam instead of frying well. Drying it thoroughly helps it hold its shape and brown in the hot fat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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